Thank you for your patience as our team and factory partners returned from Gen Con (Indianapolis) last week. We’re rested, re-engaged, and our voices are mostly back to normal.
Mass production is still underway for Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven, but we’ve got some light updates to provide, let’s dive in!
Gen Con 2026 was a blast! We're...mostly....recovered ;)
Gloomhaven RPG
Mass production continues! No exciting updates or shenanigans, which is a good thing!
We had such a great time showing off the pre-production copy of Gloomhaven: The Roleplaying Game in person and received lots of great feedback from those of you in attendance. Whether you stopped by the booth or signed up for one of our RPG play events, thank you for stopping by and checking it out!
For those of you we missed, here are some photos of our showcase:
Jeff shows off the Casskia world map, which bookends the book on both inside covers.
The Gloomhaven RPG Deluxe Box Set - too big for one mortal display cabinet to showcase fully open...
Gloom Master Screen & Elemental Book Mark Trackers
The Gloomhaven: Playing Card Deck
Diving into Character Creation with the Gloomhaven RPG Book Display!
Miniatures of Gloomhaven
While we leaving for Gen Con, our factory partner let us know their engineers had discovered an issue that needed addressing surrounding our flight stands and flying monsters which has since been resolved and is currently being re-tested for quality.
As you are probably aware by now, our miniatures are plastic injected at mass quantities with molten plastic and steel molds. While this creates large quantities of high detail miniatures quickly, the variable factors (temp, plastic, timing, cooling, etc) can lead to quality inconsistencies without good controls and assurance checks.
We had performed flight-stand-fit testing throughout our preproduction efforts and called out models that a) fit their flight stand, b) were too tight to fit their flight stand, & c) fit their flight stand but less confidently. These had initially been addressed by the factory team who then kept (thankfully!) a very close eye on those miniatures as mass production kicked off.
Flight Stands - NOW UNDER RECONSTRUCTION (well....mold adjustments)
What they realized was even despite their modifications to the molds, they still weren’t happy with what was supposed to be a “consistent” fit across all flying models.
With quality of these miniatures being top priority, we asked them to revisit the mold modifications and fix them ALL consistently across the full line.
Over the last two weeks they have paused mass production to do just that, and I’m happy to say the new samples we received last night are much improved, more consistent, and ideally much less prone to accidental slippage or breakage.
While a delay isn’t ideal, we’d much rather deal with this issue now then have to send you replacement parts further down the line when you finally get to those scenarios with flying enemies.
We also took proactive use of this time to discuss further small tray modifications we could implement to improve the user experience out of the box, such as finger indents for smoother removal/replacement.
Production should be picking right back up here any day now once I get the confirmation from our factory that their further testing was successful.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this 360 degree look at the Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Summons Expansion Set:
Mercenaries Wanted
We know this is predominantly a place to update you on our remaining Grand Festival efforts, but we’d be remiss to quickly touch on a new Cephalofair project that will be featuring many of the characters you’ve come to know and recognize from our crowdfunding games like Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, and the Gloomhaven RPG.
If you attended Gen Con with us, or are subscribed to our INSIDERS NEWSLETTER, you may have heard we’ve announced our next brand new game, MERCENARIES WANTED!
(Prototype Only)
MERCENARIES WANTED ($24.99 USD) is a drafting game for 1-6 players designed by Cephalofair’s very own Dennis Vögele (Jaws of the Lion, Frosthaven, Gloomhaven (2025), Mercenary Packs, etc), and takes ~45 mins to play!
In Mercenaries Wanted, players won’t play adventurous Mercenaries this time around. No. Instead, you get to step into the shoes of an adventurous Mercenary HR Manager!
That’s right! Because what is running a company of freelance mercenaries OTHER than one giant human resources puzzle?
I won’t crowd this space with my musing about why I’m so excited, but if you’d like to read a bit more I’ve published a blog here full of post-Gen Con enthusiasm: "Mercenaries Wanted: Why I'm Excited as a Publisher"
Hire, Fire, & Promote Your Way to Victory as a Mercenary Company Recruitment Officer in MERCENARIES WANTED!
END OF UPDATE
Thank you all for your time this week and letting us share about the exciting (and non-exciting) progress being made on all fronts.
I'll be back in two weeks with a very, very, short update to confirm that mass production on miniatures is back up to speed and share any other brief updates.
We had some samples scheduled for arrival late yesterday, so we pushed the update to today. Thank you for your patience.
We've gotten our hands on them, so let's dive in!
------------------------------------------
Gloomhaven RPG
Since our last update, all pre-production sample findings have been addressed, proofed, and implemented for mass production. We are in the manufacturing phase of the timeline!
We also had the Gloomhaven RPG: Core Card Set sample arrive, here are some photos:
With mass production underway our focus for the RPG will shift to the shipping plan. That means we will have less information while this part of the project is being manufactured, but we’ll gladly continue sharing updates, photos, insights as production moves forward!
------------------------------------------
Miniatures of Gloomhaven
THE MINIATURES ARE MELTING!
Just kidding…well…sorta.
Our factory has let us know that over the last week they’ve been battling an intense heat wave that has led to some pausing of production due to the impact on output quality (warping, detail loss, etc). Plastic injection molding is already done at molten temperatures, but when it's too hot it leads to some engineering problems and warpage during cooling/setting. Luckily, this was all caught by quality control, but it does mean we’re delayed by ~two weeks in SOME of our production efforts. We aren’t happy about this, but waiting is much preferable to melted miniatures.
"Miniatures of Gloomhaven...so hot right now."
Onto the positive, trays for Gloomhaven: Core Set came in this week, so here is how these models look all nested in their spots, along with the work-in-progress tray maps Layne has been building for us:
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #1
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #1 Map
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #2
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #2 Map
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #3
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #3 Map
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #4
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set - Tray #4 Map
Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set next to Gloomhaven (board game). It's not quite as big...but it's close!
With trays largely out of our way, we also now know our final box dimensions so are completing in fuller confidence our packaging. Below is a "work-in-progress" side by side of each of the spines and how they'll roughly look on your shelf! (fits1.5 Kallax shelf cubes)
Short side of Gloomhaven/Frosthaven. Long side of Forgotten Circles & Jaws of the Lion. Fits 1.5 Kallax shelf cubes.
Finally, we thought you might appreciate an in-depth look at the Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set now that we have 100% of the production samples in and approved:
------------------------------------------
Gen Con
GEN CON - Indianapolis, IN (JUL 30 - AUG 2)
Just a reminder that Julie, Chris, Aaron, myself, and our amazing team of supporters will be out at Gen Con next week (Booth 351) showing off the Gloomhaven RPG and selling advanced copies of our Buttons & Bugs expansion PUB CRAWLERS! (you can pre-order for Gen Con pickup HERE).
We’ll be running official Gen Con events for Gloomhaven, Buttons & Bugs, and the Gloomhaven RPG as well, you can sign up for those registered events HERE.
Swing by the booth and you may also catch me showcasing a brand new title we’re planning to release at PAX: Unplugged later this year! (Don’t miss the reveal— SUBSCRIBE to our Insider Newsletter today!)
Can't make it to Gen Con?Don't worry! We've got a fun little activity planned for Gloomhaven fans to participate in at home so keep your eyes on our newsletter and socials above next week.
—--------------
End of Update
That’ll be it for this week.
We’ll be back on Aug 5th with a small post-Gen Con update for you.
Until then, have a great week and we hope you’re staying cool!
"Mighty" Max Johnson says "Stay cool and don't melt!"
We have a LOT of production samples to show off in today’s update, and a pledge manager that will be reopening THIS FRIDAY, so let’s jump right in!
--------------------
-FINAL PLEDGE MANAGER OPENING
With Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven projects entering mass production, we will be reopening this FINAL WAVE pledge manager on Friday, July 10th, and these will remain open for approximately one month (closing date to be announced in a following update).
Some important notes on this final wave of pledge manager:
Address: If your shipping address has changed please make sure your address is current and up to date now. To avoid any re-shipping fees or lost pledges, don’t wait until fulfillment is about to start!
Add-ons: This is your last chance to add any additional add-ons to your pledge
Pricing: The pricing for add-ons will be updated to reflect final production costs and retail pricing. This does NOT impact prior pledge discounts.
Deadline: We will be leaving the pledge manager open for at least the next 30 days and will give at least 2 weeks prior notice to closure in an upcoming backerkit update.
--------------------
GLOOMHAVEN RPG
The pre-production copy (PPC) is in!
The Gloomhaven RPG pre-production copy has arrived!
This is our final sample that includes full color printing and assembly to our specifications before we set the factory in motion for mass production and assembly.
We’re really glad to report that any findings we had in the white sample review have been addressed here and this is one of the most dialed in pre-production samples we’ve received to-date! Quality is on point, and assembly is accurate down to the last deck of cards.
Our internal production team will be taking this final opportunity to collaborate with the factory and fine-tune the color saturation and contrast of the components.
Gloomhaven RPG Deluxe Box Set
Here you can take a look at part of our component review process, which involves inspecting every deck of cards and their accompanying tuckbox:
GLOOMHAVEN PLAYING CARDS GIFT
As a special “Thank You” gift, we will be including a FREE deck of Gloomhaven: Playing cards in all orders containing the Gloomhaven: RPG Deluxe Box Set! (A $12.99 value!)
Gloomhaven: Playing Cards - compatible with Gloomhaven RPG, or on their own!
You will receive this free gift if:
You pledged at the “RPG Deluxe Box Set” level
You pledged at the “Ultimate Gloomhaven Set” level
You pledged at the "The Big One" level
You add(ed) Gloomhaven: RPG Deluxe Box Set to your existing pledge.
This will include any NEW backers of the Gloomhaven: RPG Deluxe Box set so please take that into consideration when the pledge manager re-opens later this week. No action will be required on your part other than making sure you have a copy of the Deluxe Box Set secured.
Any additional decks of Gloomhaven: Playing Cards added to your cart will be charged accordingly. The FREE copy will be added automatically at fulfillment and will not reflect in your cart.
--------------------
MINIATURES OF GLOOMHAVEN
This last week we received our white box sample for the Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set and our first round of mass production samples as well!
Jekserah and her guard.
The Gloomhaven: Core Set is the largest in the line as you can see in the photo below. It includes all the enemy miniatures you’ll need for Gloomhaven (both first and second editions). It also serves as a starting point for the Forgotten Circles, Jaws of the Lion, and Frosthaven miniatures sets, providing all of the returning monsters for those titles as well.
Miniatures Sets Left to Right: Gloomhaven Core Set, Forgotten Circles, Jaws of the Lion, Gloomhaven Summons, Frosthaven, Frosthaven Summons
This shipment also contained our first mass production samples of the miniature BASE RINGS and FLIGHT STANDS.
Here is a preview of the models we received this week:
Our review and testing at this stage (mass production samples) includes the following:
Quality Assurance: Review and call out any unintentional errors with the models such as warpage, deformation, and/or faulty assembly.
Adjustments: Advocate for any adjustments in plastics used or plastic injection process including temperature, pressure, assembly, etc. In more extreme cases pursue fine adjustments to the mold tooling.
Base Rings: Test fit all base rings to all model bases
Flight Stands: Test fit all flight stands to all models
Ice, Flame, Sun, Wind, and Night Demons in their full six-count enemy groups.
Miniature Mass Production Findings:
The Yay:
The models look really great!
They feel solid and firm, without being brittle.
Quantities were correct.
Base rings fit 100% of models; also fit flight stand bases
Flight stands (that fit) fit securely and do not fall out even when shaken.
A smattering of demons.
The Meh:
Thus far, 2 models have had issues with flight stands falling out unintentionally when picked up. These have been reported and are being adjusted on their molds.
A number of “flying” models (4 thus far) don’t yet fit their flight stand. The hole on their underside will be increased slightly on their mold to allow the flight stand to fit securely.
Still awaiting more Gloomhaven: Core Set models
The Nay
It was our intent for the identification numbers on the base rings to be both embossed and painted. Unfortunately, the factory was not able to produce these with the numbers raised high enough to be read on their own. Furthermore, they were not able to line the painted numbers up with the raised numbers, resulting in legibility issues. For this reason, we will be removing the raised numbers on the base rings and using a paint-only approach. This will allow us to keep the base ring material soft and flexible for ease of use while also ensuring that their numbering is helpful and legible.
What’s Next?
We have more mass production samples on their way to us for the Miniatures of Gloomhaven Core Set as well as the Frosthaven expansion set, as well as trays for test fit & review. We’re also locking in our final mass production run quantities. .
--------------------
INTRODUCING BUTTONS & BUGS: PUB CRAWLERS!
Grand Festival backers of Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs may be excited to know that we recently announced a NEW EXPANSION coming this fall… BUTTONS & BUGS: PUB CRAWLERS!
This tiny little expansion includes two new playable micro mercenaries (micro, NOT shrunken!): the Shaper Whistlecry and the Psyllium Fungal Monk, as well as a brand new mutli-path campaign.
Buttons & Bugs: Pub Crawlers is AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW on cephalofair.com(including advanced Gen Con pickup options). Order now and receive “The Flames of Ashtar” prequel micro-campaign FREE with your purchase when you add it to your cart!
Flames of Ashtar Micro-Campaign - FREE w/ pre-order of Buttons & Bugs: Pub Crawlers
We’ll be sharing more game insights and information as we inch closer to Gen Con, you can catch the latest tidbits in advance by subscribing to our new Insider Newsletter HERE, which gets the scoop at least one week before our main newsletter.
Pub Crawlers comes with two new playable classes, new enemies, new dice, new status tokens, and a brand new optional Challenge Deck!
GEN CON 2026
Find Cephalofair at Gen Con Booth #351
As a reminder, our team will be attending Gen Con 2026 (Booth 351) at the end of this month so come say hello!
We’ll have the above mentioned Gloomhaven RPG set on full display, a limited amount of advance copies of Buttons & Bugs: Pub Crawlers for sale, and restocks of last year’s Mercenary Packs.
Keen observers may also spot an “early preview” of a new type of Gloomhaven game in the Cephalofair Booth #351....
--------------------
END OF UPDATE
That’s it for this week. It’s incredibly exciting having so much physically in hand to share with you and hope you enjoyed diving in alongside us. We’ll be back on July 21st with even more!
As promised, we’re back this week with timeline updates for the Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven projects.
We’ve spent the last two weeks working closely with our factories to align expectations, confirm current and next steps, and build out realistic timelines we feel good about.
What we are presenting today is a conservative estimate based on those mass production dates provided to us, our past experiences with logistical time frames, and dependencies on mass production hitting its projected milestones.
We will be taking every step to make sure our remaining steps between here and fulfillment are completed in a timely manner and with quality in mind.
Before we get into the timeline, I’d like to give an updated commitment to our backer community:
Our Commitment:
With our final two Grand Festival projects officially entering mass production, our primary job and commitment from here is to:
Update you twice a month!
Communicate with both factories, multiple times per week, every week.
Book freight in advance once guaranteed factory pickup dates are provided to us.
Track containers as they cross land and sea. (We’ll provide you with the boat info to track along!)
Coordinate with regional fulfillment centers so they know exactly when your pledges are estimated to arrive and plan for fulfillment start/completion dates.
Provide daily backer support through fulfillment completion.
These are our top most internal priorities for 2026.
We know our original timelines were overly ambitious and development of these projects more complex than we estimated. We own that, and appreciate your patience immensely. We have an obligation to do better in the future when estimating delivery timelines. Thankfully, we’ve also learned a lot of lessons about “sharing the load” and leaning on more talented minds/hands than fewer, so staffing up has been a major initiative of 2026.
While we don’t have any crowdfunding campaigns planned for the immediate future, we hope you start seeing these changes manifest through the remainder of this project and as we launch other non-crowdfunding releases.
--------------------
Important Disclosures:
Additionally, there are some important disclosures and context to provide generally to these timelines:
Timelines:
These timelines are estimates and subject to change.
Any real or potential timeline changes will be communicated in our twice-monthly project updates as we identify them.
Factors that can impact these timelines:
Factory delays
Pre-production/master production copy errors/correction
Ocean freight delays due to weather, politics, piracy, etc.
Port delays/congestion
Holidays
Fulfillment partner congestion based on other project fulfillment operations.
U.S. tariffs & trade policy changes
Factors that do not impact Grand Festival timelines:
Restock/reprints of existing titles
Announcements of new/future titles/projects
Pre-order campaigns for new/future titles/projects
Mass Production
RPG & Miniatures projects are being produced by two different manufacturers overseas.
RPG & Miniatures projects are projected to arrive and fulfill separately from one another.
Fulfillment
We will be working with regional fulfillment partners in the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, China, and UK (UK/EU/Rest of World).
Regions will be fulfilled independently and ASAP once pledges hit their respective warehouses.
December is typically “no-man’s land” for project fulfillment, so as indicated above and below, we’ve added an additional buffer to account for uncertainty between Black Friday and Christmas.
--------------------
Timeline Estimations
JUNE
RPG: Pre-production efforts between factory and Cephalofair completed. PPC approved.
Minis: Pre-production efforts between factory and Cephalofair completed, molds completed.
RPG: Arrives for land freight to fulfillment centers.
Minis: Ocean freight continues.
DECEMBER:
RPG: Arrives at fulfillment centers, begins fulfillment.
Minis: Arrives for land freight to fulfillment centers.
JANUARY:
RPG: Fulfillment completion.
Minis: Arrives at fulfillment centers, begins fulfillment.
FEBRUARY:
Minis: Fulfillment completion.
We’re doing our best to realistically plan for the “longest” case scenarios here and especially recognize how hectic ocean/fulfillment operations are during Nov/Dec. If we are fortunate enough that things progress faster, you’ll be the first to know!
--------------------
In the meantime…we’re still cooking!
It is a major internal milestone here at Cephalofair knowing that our portion of production work for RPG and Miniatures is finally coming to a completion. Shout out to our production team for all their hard work getting these fantastic new entries over the final hurdles and into the hands of our factory.
These projects remain our primary focus internally at Cephalofair. We are coordinating and planning logistics and support prep for the final two pieces of the Grand Festival while production begins. Please keep an eye out for the Pledge Manager to open sometime in the coming month. We will provide those specific dates in our next update.
With the RPG and Miniatures headed to production, members of our production, sales, and marketing teams will start to spend more time on other projects that have been brewing behind the scenes. We’ve hired literally dozens of new contractors in the last six months alone to support the team with finishing the Grand Festival and moving our other projects forward.
This week we will be formally announcing an upcoming release that will be available for Gen Con pre-order. Similar to last year’s Gen Con release, we were fortunate enough to lean on external developers to help get this project completed while keeping our core team on the outstanding Grand Festival projects.
Gen Con 2025
In an ideal world, I’d prefer to see us fulfill these two Grand Festival projects to you first. But smaller projects are quintessential from a business perspective and for us as a publisher. They help us cover overhead in between larger releases, support our game designers & staff, and drive ongoing retailer interest in our backlog catalogue. This is why, as a publisher, we have projects in all stages of development, even if they’re not the things on our immediate internal plates.
And why can you excitedly expect more things from us in the future.
Thank you for your understanding, your support, and your trust. We can’t wait to get Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven onto your porches and tables!
--------------------
Gen Con is Coming!
As mentioned above, our team will be out at Gen Con next month (Booth #351) displaying our factory copies of the Gloomhaven RPG, running demo events of all sorts, and showcasing a couple new things we’ve been cooking up behind the scenes.
You can sign up for our official Gen Con events HERE.
We’re still also looking for a few good booth “mercs” as well, so if you are already attending Gen Con and are interested in helping run some demos please consider applying!
Today we have some production updates for you on the Gloomhaven Role Playing Game and Miniatures of Gloomhaven projects.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, we’d like to briefly address project updates & timelines.
Project Tracker - June 2, 2026
Project Updates & Timelines
As physical production of these final projects ramp up, we will begin to once again provide updates twice a month to clarify timelines and share production progress until project completion.
Which means we’ll be back in two weeks (June 16th, 2026) with a dedicated update on where things stand and what the timeline for mass manufacturing is looking like.
We’ve made great progress this last month in white box samples and digital file submission and proofing—enough progress that we can now confidently start getting estimates from our multiple factories of when their production runs are estimated to complete, when our freight partners can pick up, and when our fulfillment centers will begin distributing orders.
So please check back in a couple weeks, and in the meantime thank you all for your continued patience and enthusiasm!
-----------------------
Gloomhaven: The Roleplaying Game-
White box samples are approved and digital files are approved! (with the exception of the outer box)
Last week we received our updated white box sample for the Deluxe RPG Set (which got our approval). This means that our production team has what they need to complete the external packaging design and submit it to our manufacturer this week.
RPG Deluxe Box Set - approved white box sample. (final)
Gloomhaven RPG - Card Tome 1 white box sample (final)
Gloomhaven RPG: Card Tome I design layout
Gloomhaven RPG - Card Tome 2 white box sample (final)
Gloomhaven RPG - Card Tome II design layout
We were able to solve our major requests and refine some elements of the box. We had tried thumb slots and ribbons for access to the components inside before concluding that the most user-friendly option was access holes in the back for pushing the card tomes and core book out of their shelves.
The top most access hole will be removed (was too small to be valuable)
Deluxe Box Card Tome removal
The missing cubby was also added back in for the GM screen and character/company sheet pads.
All other RPG component files have been submitted, laid out into printing sheets by our factory, and digitally reviewed & approved by our team.
Gloomhaven RPG: Ability Cards - digital layout for print
Gloomhaven RPG: Ability Deck tuckbox - digital layout for print
From here, the factory will take our approved digital proofs and begin making our pre-production copy (PPC).
Our team physically reviewing the PPC is the last step in the pre-production phase before mass manufacturing officially begins! With our approval, the factory will get started making all books, cards, boxes, etc. and assembling them for ocean freight.
Miniatures of Gloomhaven
We received additional white box samples this last week for both of the Summons expansion sets (Gloomhaven/Frosthaven). Each of these sets will be fitting a single-tray box that shares the same face dimensions of the Gloomhaven/Frosthaven game boxes.
Gloomhaven: Summons Miniature Expansion Set white box sample
Gloomhaven: Summons Miniatures Expansion Set white box sample - side profile
While not reflected in this photo, we are working with the factory to make sure that summons are grouped by class in the final layout:
Gloomhaven: Miniatures Expansion Set tray proposal V1 (not final)
Additionally, each tray will come with an accompanying storage map of which models go where to aid in setup/tear down. The image below is not final.
Finally, more tray proposals were received and audited by our team for the Gloomhaven Core Set and the Frosthaven Expansion Set. For context, the base rings are just placeholders for the model quantities:
Gloomhaven: Miniatures Core Expansion Set - Tray V1 (Not Final)
Frosthaven Miniatures Expansion Set - Tray V1 (Not final)
According to our factory, final molds are all in production and expected to finalize this month. As those round the corner, we’re finalizing our box designs and the above mentioned tray maps.
All that to say, we should be in mass production this July, and we look forward to having more concrete timelines in a couple of weeks for you, so stay tuned!
Community Spotlight
This month, we’re shining the community spotlight on Jeff over at Solo Strategic Playthroughs. Jeff has made a series of excellent videos on Youtube playing through a campaign of the new edition of Gloomhaven. The videos are well edited with clear explanations of what is going on, which is always appreciated! And the channel also has playthroughs of some other campaign games, if you are looking for more content. Keep up the great work!
